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Palin's Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joe Biden, a veteran of the Sunday talk show circuit, said she delivered a great speech at the convention, but "her silence on the issues was deafening.

"She didn't mention a word about health care, a word about the environment, a word about the middle class. They never parted her lips ... so I don't know where she is on those things."

"Voting with George Bush 90 percent of the time isn't being a maverick, it's being the president's sidekick," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "The idea that John McCain represents change in Washington is as laughable as his claim that he'll take on the special interests when some of the biggest corporate lobbyists in America are running his campaign."

Obama himself jumped on McCain's new campaign theme of change, blasting him for choosing Palin, who has been praised as a maverick for taking on corruption in her own party.

McCain's choice of Palin "tells me that he chose somebody who may be even more aligned with George Bush — or (Vice President) Dick Cheney, or the politics we've seen over the last eight years — that John McCain himself is," he said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

McCain and Palin were in New Mexico, but taking a day off from campaigning on Sunday. Obama took the day off from campaigning, and Biden was in Montana.